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Dear  brothers and sisters in Christ,  

The  celebration of Corpus Christi that takes place at our cathedral each year is  a wonderful occasion. The celebration of the sacrifice of the Mass, the  procession of the Blessed Sacrament and the Carpet of Flowers, laid in honour  of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, is a high point in the life  of the cathedral and diocese.  

It  is a clear reminder to us all of the central place of the Eucharist in our  lives. The absolute love of the Lord – seen in the feeding of the five  thousand that is the gospel reading this week – is there for us every time we  celebrate Mass. As St Paul reminds us in the Second Reading this  Sunday, the sacrifice of Calvary is made present and the Lord feeds us with  His very Self, for He is the Bread of Life. We find life every time we  join in this celebration, together with our brothers and sisters. It is  this life that sustains our every action – indeed, every moment of our  lives. The Mass, the Eucharist, is a proclamation of our faith in the  One who died and rose from the dead for us; it is the food for our journey  and the source of all our action. We leave the celebration, as the  dismissal at the end of Mass reminds us, to “announce the Gospel of the  Lord.” Without our closeness to Christ in the Eucharist, this  proclamation would be less effective. The sustenance of the Bread of  Life Himself makes life and mission possible for us.   

In  the Eucharist, we are in the Divine Presence, we are in the presence of  Christ, who is a “priest for ever” as Psalm 109 reminds us. May this  encounter with the person of Christ Himself – truly present in the  Eucharist – be the wellspring of our every breath, our every moment, our  every action, that all we do may proclaim to the world the wonder of all the  Lord has done for us.  

With  every blessing,

+  Richard

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